Computer articles

Tips to Maximise Notebook`s Battery Life

Notebook batteries are designed specifically for different notebooks brand as well as models. Today notebooks are powered by lithium ion batteries. Lithium ion batteries are lighter, have a better power-to-weight ratio, can hold a charge longer, have a longer usable life, and do not have the memory effect to fail prematurely.

Lithium ion batteries are also inexpensive to manufacture as compared to the earlier generation of nickel metal hydride batteries. The only shortcoming about lithium ion batteries is as they contain lithium salt dissolved in a highly flammable solvent, there are chances of overhead which can result in short-circuits or even blow up in flames.

It is a common fact that all notebook batteries have provision for limited time of power supply. A good bargain is to check the battery power while buying a notebook. Here is one instant tip to optimize the battery settings in accordance with the energy saving mode of your notebook. These settings will put the hard disk into sleep mode whenever the workload is less and it will reduce the notebook microprocessor performance in order to maximize its battery life.

From the system preferences mode of your notebook, select view menu, then choose energy saver option from view menu. Right click on show details option and choose battery power from the pop-up menu. Finally choose longest battery life from the energy settings pop-up menu.
Tips to optimise your notebook batteries are described in the following:

It is better to keep your notebook on standby mode when not in use for certain amount of time. Standby mode ensures all current info is saved in RAM with minimum consumption of battery power.

It is a good investment to add more memory to your notebook as it saves battery power by reducing Windows' dependence on the virtual memory swap file on your hard disk.

Try to set the screen brightness of the LCD panel of your notebook to the lowest comfortable level as very bright screen tends to consume more power from your battery.

Charge your notebook battery frequently with a battery charger or AC adapter. It is very important to clean your battery's metal contacts every couple of months to make it dust free. You can use a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol to clean your notebook battery.

Turn of the unused features and technologies of your notebook which are not frequently usable. For example, it is better to eject the CD or DVD when you are not using them as the optical drive has the tendency of reading CD or DVD it finds very often and this process consume extra battery power.

Similarly it is better to get rid of the outer peripherals such as printers or digital cameras as they can still draw power from your notebook battery even when they are not used.

Turning off or at least disabling the PC Cards, FireWire devices and USB when not in use also saves battery power. In fact, disabling modem, network cards and USB ports consumes less battery power even when they are on. These devices are easily disabled in device manager.

To save power, it is good idea to turn off the AirPort, Wi-Fi, IR radios and Bluetooth option when it is not required to use. Virus scan should be set only during the time you are usually plugged in as full-disk virus check by the hard drive and CPU consumes additional power from battery.

Opt for the power console applet to customize the power profiles on your notebook. Do not worry in case your notebook does not have power console applet option for most of the operating systems (starting from windows 98) have Power Options utility in Control Panel.

You can use power saver option of your operating system to adjust the CPU processing power. Optimum CPU processes consume additional battery power and hence should be avoided if not required. Stop the auto start applications on your notebook, so that your notebook`s CPU can be stopped from doing unnecessary work.

With the above mentioned handy tips, you can truly increase the battery performance of your notebook.